The invention relates to apparatus and methods for presenting photographs and their associated stories. More specifically, it relates to mechanisms for organizing photographs on a web site. The present invention may also be applied to the representation and organization of any physical object on a web site.
There are several ways that an individual may collect and display photographs. For example, one may collect photographs over a period of time. The collection of photos may then be manually organized and inserted within a photo album. The individual typically selects an order and grouping of the photos within the photo album. For example, the individual may group together a set of photos about a family member""s birthday party. By way of another example, photos may be arranged sequentially by time.
The photo album approach has several disadvantages. First, after an individual selects the order and grouping of the photos, she must then spend a large amount of time manually inserting the photos within the album itself. If she changes her mind regarding the order or grouping of the photos, she may have to remove photos from the album to rearrange them. This task also is typically time consuming. In sum, organizing a photo album is a burdensome task.
Additionally, since an individual typically only compiles one copy of a particular photo album, she usually wants to keep possession of the photo album. Consequently, it is difficult to share the photo album. For example, she may share her album with people when they are present within her home or she may physically carry the album to another person""s home. The album author is typically unwilling to ship the album to another person because the author does not wish to risk losing the album.
With the prevalence of home computers having Internet access, many photo enthusiasts are digitizing their photos and displaying them on a world wide web page. An individual digitally scans her photos (or uses a digital camera or a photo CD) to form digital files, such as JPEG files. She then generates a web page using HTML tagging language, for example. Specifically, she uses HTML tags to include links to the digital files within her web page. To organize her photos in a particular arrangement, she selects an appropriate set of HTML tags.
Although this approach allows an individual to share her photos with an unlimited number of people without the risk of giving up her own copy of the photos, the typical photo enthusiast may not have the skill or time to design her own web page. Designing a web page is typically a complex and time consuming process. That is, the web page designer has to learn how to use the HTML tagging language, or some other language that is recognized by a browser. In sum, the typical consumer is unable or unwilling to design her own web page for displaying photos.
Thus, improved mechanisms for organizing photographs are needed. More specifically, mechanisms that allow an individually to easily organize photos without investing a large amount of time or technical know-how are needed.
Accordingly, the present invention addresses the above problems by providing a user-friendly interface and procedure for organizing photos, as well as other types of physical objects. In general terms, the present invention provides mechanisms that may be utilized by an author to generate stories made of or about physical objects, such as photographs. The author organizes a set of physical objects into a particular story through an easy to use interface. In one embodiment, each physical object is associated with a specific barcode, and the author simply uses the input device to scan barcodes of selected physical objects that are to be included within the particular story. The authoring process may be performed off-line.
Using the input device, the author may also add her own commentary as part of building the story in a number of unique ways. For example, she can associate an audio clip with a particular physical object that makes up the story or with the entire story itself. In one embodiment, the input device includes a microphone for receiving voice input, as well as a barcode reader for scanning a particular barcode of a selected physical object. The author may also select one or more presentation styles that will be used to display the entire story. For example, the author may select a particular border to be displayed around each photo within the photo story.
In one embodiment, each story and its related components are stored within the input device. For example, each component of a particular story may be stored within an edit list for that particular story. In one aspect, each photo barcode and audio clip is sequentially stored within the corresponding story""s edit list.
After the author generates one or more stories via the input device, the author""s input is transformed into one or more stories that are displayed on a computer (e.g., via a world wide web page) such that others may view the authored stories. Each story may include reproductions of the physical objects that were included in the particular story. For example, digitized copies of several related photos are displayed sequentially. The authors annotations (e.g., audio clips) are also displayed or played along with the physical object reproductions.
In one embodiment, an apparatus for organizing photographs, each photograph being digitized and stored within a database is disclosed. Each digitized photograph has an associated identifier, and each identifier is also in a physical form that is readable by an input device. The apparatus includes an input device having an image reader arranged to read one or more identifiers that include one or more photo identifiers associated with selected photographs, a data recorder arranged to receive annotation data related to each digitized photograph, and a memory device arranged to store information based on such reading and receipt. The apparatus further includes an interface device arranged to transfer the stored information from the input device to the database such that the photographs that correspond to the stored information are accessible and displayable.
In another embodiment, a data structure suitable for storing information useful in displaying photographs is disclosed. The data structure is embodied in a computer readable media and includes a plurality of photograph elements each having a photograph identifier and a reference to a digitized photograph that is associated with the photograph identifier. The data structure also includes a plurality of story elements each having a story identifier and one or more photograph identifiers. The story elements correspond to selected digitized photographs that are played when the corresponding story element is accessed.
In another aspect, the invention pertains to a method of organizing photographs off-line. Each photograph is digitized and stored within a media database. A representation of each digitized photograph is provided, and each representation is readable by an input device to identify the corresponding digitized photograph. Off-line from a computer, a selected one of the representations is received into the input device so that the representation is stored within the input device. The representation within the input device is transferred to a story database in a format that is accessible to display the corresponding digitized photograph.
In another embodiment, the invention pertains to a computer program product for organizing photographs off-line. Each photograph is digitized and stored within a media database. The computer program product includes at least one computer readable medium and computer program instructions stored within the at least one computer readable product for causing a processing device to perform the above described operations.
In yet another embodiment, a authoring system for presenting a story about tagged physical objects on an accessible computer site is disclosed. The authoring system includes a reader arranged to read selected tags of the tagged objects and a processor arranged to convert such selections into a story element having object identifiers associated with the selected tagged objects. The object identifiers correspond to images and the group forms a story about the selected tagged objects. The authoring system also includes a computer interface arranged to transfer the story element to the computer site so that a user may access the computer site and view the story element""s associated images.
The present invention has several associated advantages. For example, the authoring system of the present invention allows off-line authoring of photo albums. The author may utilize a user-friendly input device to easily scan barcodes of photographs to create a story. The author may also utilize the input device to add her own commentary regarding each photo as part of building the story. The completed story may then be automatically formatted and downloaded to a relational database from which the completed story may be accessed and viewed. The author does not have to have any technical expertise in database management or HTML, for example, to create digitally displayable stories since the story content may be automatically formatted and downloaded to the database and reformatted as HTML when sent back to be seen in the display device.